DAVID Bellion believes Manchester United's mis-firing stars should have apologised to Sir Alex Ferguson for Saturday's woeful display against Exeter.

Ferguson was so dismayed by his team's embarrassing start to their FA Cup defence he said sorry to the fans for the 0-0 draw.

But Bellion, who had just one opportunity against the non-league minnows despite operating as United's lone striker, admitted the United boss should not have been forced to face the flak alone.

The former Sunderland man knows he was one of half-a-dozen Red Devils who performed well below their best. And for that, he thinks Ferguson deserves his own apology.

"I totally understand why the manager apologised to the fans but maybe we could have apologised to him," Bellion told MUTV.

"We played really badly. Maybe we passed the ball too much thinking we would break them down easily but it did not happen.

"We were not lively and personally, I was really disappointed with the way I played."

Bellion is now sweating on his place for Wednesday's Carling Cup semi-final at Chelsea and also the Exeter replay at St James Park on January 19.

The Frenchman remains confident United will eventually defeat the Conference outfit and book a fourth round encounter with Middlesbrough. And he thinks one of the prime reasons for that is the anger bubbling under at Saturday's inept display.

"We will get our revenge," he said. "We can use the bit of anger inside us to win the game.

"The only thing you can do is learn from your mistakes. Hopefully we can come back stronger from this and show the manager what we can do."

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